Guide to Library Services for Distance Learning - Graduate Students

Borrow Materials

Get Set Up to Use the Library

An activated ASU OneCard or Faculty/Staff ID (so you can check out materials)

An activated Technology Access Account (so you can access the library’s online resources).

Here’s how:

Get an activated ASU OneCard or Faculty/Staff ID

Obtain a card by contacting the OneCard Office. (If you are waiting for your card to arrive, you can get a temporary ID through the OneCard office.) When you receive your card, you can activate it here.

Activate your Technology Access Account

Many people activate their account at orientation. You need it for most online services at ASU — and at the library, it includes the online databases and periodicals. To activate it:

Access Your Library Account & Renew Eligible Items

To see when your items are due and renew, go to the RamCat log-in page and enter your last name, Library PIN (the default is ABCD4321), and your ASU campus ID.

Borrowing Periods, Fines & Renewals

Item Type

Loan Period*

Renewals

Overdue Fines**

Books on the 2nd floor

42 days

1

$0.25/day/item (if recalled: $0.30/day/item)

Juvenile books

21 days

1

$0.25/day/item

Government Documents - books

21 days

2

$0.25/day/item

Government Documents - maps & CDs

3 days

1

$0.25/day/item

Interlibrary loans

varies

varies

$1.00/day/item

DVDs, VHSs, CDs

3 days

1

$1.00/day/item

Closed/Permanent reserves

2 hours (in-library use only)

0

$0.10/minute/item

1-day reserve

1 day

0

$2.00/day/item

3-day reserves

3 days

0

$0.50/day/item

*Loan periods vary depending on whether an item is recalled by another patron.

**You can pay any fines at the circulation desk the same day you accrue them. The library accepts cash, checks, and RamBucks. After that, you have to pay your fines online via RamPort, or in person at the Bursar’s Office. Because fines transferred from the Library to the Bursar’s office can take up to two working days to show up in your student account, please contact the Circulation desk at 325-486-6523 for the most up-to-date information on where you may pay your fines.

Document Delivery

Document Delivery

Need resources not available through the ASU Library’s online holdings? ASU Distance Learning students who live in any location except for local counties - Coke, Concho, Irion, Menard, Reagan, Runnels, Schleicher, Sterling, or Tom Green Counties - are able to have delivered eligible Library resources through document delivery. Students living in the local counties of Coke, Concho, Irion, Menard, Reagan, Runnels, Schleicher, Sterling, or Tom Green Counties must come to the ASU Library to locate and check out material owned by the Library and to pick up books and media obtained through interlibrary loan.

Document Delivery (for non-local students)Gives you access to items owned by the Library that do not come in electronic format. Articles from circulating print resources owned by the Library will be scanned and emailed to non-local distance learning students, subject to copyright restrictions. These students should request items using their Angelo State email account, as this is the official means of communication between the institution and the student. Emailed articles will be sent to students’ Angelo State account.

Circulating items from the Library’s print and media collection are also available to be checked out by non-local distance learning students, subject to priority given for students’ academic studies. Books and media delivered to non-local distance learners will be sent from ASU via insured mail, with a postage paid insured return envelope. Items must be received in the Library by the due date, in order to avoid overdue fines. Non-local students may want to consider their local libraries as a resource as well, in order to speed access and avoid overdue fines.

To request materials through document delivery or interlibrary loan, please use the appropriate interlibrary loan form available at http://www.angelo.edu/services/library/ill/, or the interlibrary loan option available in many of the Library’s online databases. Be sure to indicate that you are a distance learning student, and use your ASU email address.

Research

ASU Digital Repository

The ASU Digital Repository archives selected scholarly, cultural, and administrative output from the University; and makes it easy for researchers to find on the Web. For example, the digital repository is home for ASU theses, research projects, and capstone projects. We invite faculty, students, and staff to archive their articles, datasets, presentations, department newsletters and magazines, multimedia scholarship, and more. You may also start an online journal through our library services. Contact the digital repository librarian for more information.

Research Guides

Research Guides are lists of high-quality online and print research materials. They are curated by librarians and are arranged by subject and by course. They are each divided into six areas: reference, books, databases, news, websites, and videos. Find them online, 24/7 — either from the Library homepage or the Research Guides homepage.

Research Help

Need help with a research assignment? We’re happy to help and can offer several forms of assistance:

At the Research Assistance Desk, our librarians are skilled in searching a variety of different resources, and are happy to share searching techniques designed to save your time and bring better results.

Chat Our chat reference service is AskAcademic. Click on the icon below to open the chat window and ask your question.

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Prefer to work solo? We created several guides and videos so researchers can learn the basics of academic research on their own. We also have LibGuides, which are lists of recommended videos, websites, databases, books, and more that students will find useful in their research. Check out the Research Guides for your subject!

West Texas Collection

The WTC is the historical and archival collection of Angelo State University. It houses books, documents, letters, photographs and memorabilia. It also houses the University Archives. WTC and Archives materials are non-circulating.

Located on the second floor of the Houston Harte University Center at 1910 Rosemont.

Faculty members may request class visits to the WTC by appointment. For more details, contact Suzanne Campbell, the Head of Special Collections and Programs, by phone at 325-942-2164, or via email at Suzanne.Campbell@angelo.edu.

Online Resources

Students, faculty, and staff have access to hundreds of databases, accessible alphabetically or by subject. Check out our Online Resources page. Need help using one? We can help! Contact one of our reference librarians.

U-Search

Search approximately 75% of our most popular databases simultaneously! The search will return links to full-text articles and e-books, as well as citations, abstracts, and catalog entries in RamCat of print and digital materials the library owns.

Borrow Materials from Other Libraries

Interlibrary Loans

Interlibrary Loans

Interlibrary Loans (for BOTH local and non-local distance learning students)give you access to items the Library does not own!

Articles from most resources not owned by the ASU Library can often be obtained at no charge by all students, both local and non-local, via interlibrary loan from other libraries. These articles, subject to copyright restrictions, will be emailed to students’ ASU email accounts. Additionally, the majority of books that ASU does not own can be obtained at no charge via interlibrary loan, with priority for processing given to those titles required for academic studies. Local students must check out interlibrary loaned books at the Library’s Circulation Desk. To do so, students must have an activated ASU OneCard. Non-local students will have materials sent to them via insured mail, with a postage paid insured return envelope. All interlibrary loan books are first delivered to the ASU Library before being processed. Therefore, distance learners are encouraged to consider using their local library’s interlibrary loan service, if available, to speed access and avoid overdue fines.

To request materials through interlibrary loan, please use the appropriate interlibrary loan form available at http://www.angelo.edu/services/library/ill/, or the interlibrary loan option available in many of the Library’s online databases. Be sure to indicate that you are a distance learning student, and use your ASU email address

Get a TexShare Card

Access the collections of academic and public libraries all over Texas — get a TexShare Card! They’re good for one semester at a time. The card enables you to go to a member library and check out items from their collection. Find a member library near you!